The present invention relates to video encoding and decoding.
Electronic devices have become smaller and more powerful in order to meet consumer needs and to improve portability and convenience. Consumers have become dependent upon electronic devices and have come to expect increased functionality. Some examples of electronic devices include desktop computers, laptop computers, cellular phones, smart phones, media players, integrated circuits, etc.
Some electronic devices are used for processing and/or displaying digital media. For example, portable electronic devices now allow for digital media to be produced and/or consumed at almost any location where a consumer may be. Furthermore, some electronic devices may provide download or streaming of digital media content for the use and enjoyment of a consumer.
Digital video is typically represented as a series of images or frames, each of which contains an array of pixels. Each pixel includes information, such as intensity and/or color information. In many cases, each pixel is represented as a set of three colors. Some video coding techniques provide higher coding efficiency at the expense of increasing complexity. Increasing image quality requirements and increasing image resolution requirements for video coding techniques also increase the coding complexity.
The increasing popularity of digital media has presented several problems. For example, efficiently representing high-quality digital media for storage, transmittal, and playback presents several challenges. Techniques that represent digital media more efficiently is beneficial.
The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.